Simpsons vs. Family Guy

[thatblindgeye]

South Park is a show I cant even watch anymore. I used to in the early days, but ever since the movie it went downhill for me, give or take maybe acouple of episodes. The show just lost its appeal for me and hasnt been as funny as it used to be for a while.

[fineintent]

When Randy became a fully fledged character, South Park destroyed the competition.

[MDK]

When Randy became a fully fledged character, South Park destroyed the competition.

Its so true. Randy always brings the awesome.

[TheSqauredCircleMessiah]

When Randy became a fully fledged character, South Park destroyed the competition.

Its so true. Randy always brings the awesome.

[SwantonEdge]

I thought this was America!

[StevenRichardsRules]

What do you think about each show? Personally, I think the Simpsons has a more timeless quality. Alot of Family Guy episodes are funny the first time and not so much every time after.

Obviously, the shows are somewhat similar, both featuring a typical nuclear family of a boorish, kind of stupid father, a nagging mother, a boy and a girl child, a baby and a dog. Do you think some of the accusations of Family Guy ripping off the Simpsons are justified?

What audiences do you think each show targets?

Let's talk about the similarities and differences of both shows.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Family Guy is eeeehhhh. Some episodes are still funny going back and watching again, but a vast majority just get old on repeated viewings and since the show's come back it's had a lot of abyssmal episodes. I'd take present-day Simpsons over Family Guy episodes like "I Dream Of Jesus", where the first ten minutes of the show was the same unfunny joke over and over.

All in all I think I prefer The Simpsons. Back catalogue is better, and I like more of the newer episodes (The Debarted, for example). Plus, come on. 1993/4 to about '98 Simpsons was great.

[Avenged Probably]

Hmm. As a fan of both, I have a few points;

I always enjoyed Simpsons so much more as a child/young teen. Now Im an 'adult' I only laugh occaissionally at Simpsons, where as I'll laugh at pretty much all the things in a Family Guy episode. Except the references to random american actors/tv shows which nobodie British has ever heard of.

As for not finding Family guy funny after the first time, I have seasons 1-6 on DVD and have watched them all umpteen times and still continue to laugh (obviously not as much as the first time). Simpsons however, I see an episode I saw already, and I don't find it funny much at all.

I think its interesting how we have the same opinion, but flip sided for the respective shows.

[METALMAN]

Oh. I think there's been one of these before but I can't remember what I said.

I probably prefer Family Guy to the Simpsons, though I do believe both programs have been on a downwards trend for some time. The Simpsons is probably more timeless, and you do care for the characters more but it just seems tired nowadays. It has outstayed its welcome I think.

I can't really watch Simpsons or Family Guy episodes more than once before they get boring. I do think Family Guy has ripped off the Simpsons a bit, but not to a great extent.

On to audiences - I'd say Simpsons is best for younger teens and Family Guy is best for mid teens. Roughly.

[Plankton]

The first 10 seasons of The Simpsons is some of the greatest television ever produced. It's had its ups and downs since then, and to be honest, I could never get into enough to be an every-week viewer since season 10. My Tivo records some of the newer episodes as suggestions once in a while and they range from okay to good.

I like the first three seasons of Family Guy, with season 3 being its peak. Seasons 4 and on have been really hit and miss. And even when it hits, the episodes aren't nearly as rewatchable as The Simpsons in its prime.

If we're talking overall, The Simpsons beats Family Guy easily. If we're comparing current seasons, I could go either way. Family Guy probably makes me laugh harder, but The Simpsons is more consistently funny.

[Summers]

What do you think about each show? Personally, I think the Simpsons has a more timeless quality. Alot of Family Guy episodes are funny the first time and not so much every time after.

Obviously, the shows are somewhat similar, both featuring a typical nuclear family of a boorish, kind of stupid father, a nagging mother, a boy and a girl child, a baby and a dog. Do you think some of the accusations of Family Guy ripping off the Simpsons are justified?

What audiences do you think each show targets?

Let's talk about the similarities and differences of both shows.

Why not just admit you need help with your homework/project/essay?

[-A-]

It's appalling if Simpsons and Family Guy can be considered schoolwork. Saying that, I do remember mentioning Demolition Man in my English dissertation

[Guest Mr. Pumpkin Head]

It's not that farfetched. I'm taking a course this term called "Religion and Popular Culture", we've spent one class on each of The Simpsons and South Park.

[Summers]

This year in uni I've watched The Prestige, Goodfellas, Seven and Raging Bull.

Cartoon shows being studied isn't surprising to me.

[the machine]

Ugh, I talked about this way too much in undergrad. Essentially Family Guy is a soulless commentary on how shitty sitcoms are/were, populated with characters nobody cares about (except maybe the baby or the dog). It also gets a lot of love for referencing things from the 80's that absolutely everyone had forgotten about, so rather than write actual jokes, it can just cut to a cartoon from the 80's and people will go "hey, I know what that is!" The show only worked as some kind of bizarre plot deconstruction, and that was before Adult Swim started improving on the formula (pretty much all every williams street show has ever done). Now it's just garbage with a lot of pop culture references. The target audience is boys that haven't heard sex jokes before and twenty-to thirty year old men who get all the references and would rather watch their Family Guy DVDs rather than go back and realize that all the stuff they loved as a child was actually shit.

Not that I'm letting the Simpsons off the hook. For awhile it was probably the best show being put out on television, period. It had a bizarre combination of believable characters, talented writers, and an incredibly creative animation department. I mean, Brad Bird was animating, and Conan O'Brien was writing for them in season 4. How could that not be amazing? It went from being a pretty formulaic "edgy" sitcom (pretty much an animated Roseanne), to a developed world with clever writing and cinematic vision that was just great television. But all the writers moved on to host talk shows or direct mediocre films or direct great films like The Incredibles or The Iron Giant or create "The Critic" or "Mission Hill" or "Futurama" or whatever, and the animation started being handled by people that had pretty much just been worker bees (and computer animation has turned the show back into a traditional sitcom). While every other great sitcom from the 90's either went out on top or died a long, lingering death (remember when Drew Carey got a new job or Roseanne won the lottery?), the simpsons became a money-making machine and the show became obsessed with referencing every film ever. Political jokes that always go stale in the long development cycle also started showing up more, and are almost never funny. The Simpsons' target audience is weird, because the current audience is boys and girls under the age of about 15, while there's fans of all ages that don't watch the show any more.

[StevenRichardsRules]

Fuck. Did my post not work?

What do you think about each show? Personally, I think the Simpsons has a more timeless quality. Alot of Family Guy episodes are funny the first time and not so much every time after.

Obviously, the shows are somewhat similar, both featuring a typical nuclear family of a boorish, kind of stupid father, a nagging mother, a boy and a girl child, a baby and a dog. Do you think some of the accusations of Family Guy ripping off the Simpsons are justified?

What audiences do you think each show targets?

Let's talk about the similarities and differences of both shows.

Why not just admit you need help with your homework/project/essay?

Shhh. Quiet you.

Actually, this is more out of interest than out of a need to do an essay on it. I have completed said essay, though I will add to it if I see an important point I missed. I was just wondering whether people thought of them as similar shows (animated sitcoms centering on a nuclear family) or very different shows (like, the way they approach humour). Family Guy relies alot on flashback jokes while the Simpsons humour seems to be alot more ironic or situational. Agree or disagree?

[Summers]

Is that for paragraph 4?

[thatblindgeye]

I love The Simpsons still. I may not laugh out loud every episode, but I enjoy pretty much most of the newer episodes that have come out. I remember going through a phase as a kid where I "didnt like" the show, for whatever reason... But I enjoy the show a lot.

Family Guy... I USED to love, back when it was new. Since then, however, I have grown incredibly tired of it. All the show is basically is a loose plot that take up maybe 10 minutes of episode time, with the rest of the time being unfunny, non-clever cut scenes that are about what is going on in American culture or something of the sort. Maybe it's the fact it is played twice a day, back to back, every weekday on FOX now, but I can barely watch the show anymore. I'll leave it on while I'm doing something just because I wait until 7 to switch to something else, but that's about it. Some episodes I enjoy, but most of them I dislike. The only new episodes I can say I enjoyed are the Star Wars one and the Stewie kills Lois one.

All in all, fuck Family Guy. It used to be great, but it is now something I wish was never even created. It was great because it was a new cartoon show that rivaled The Simpsons I personally believe, but now.... Ugh. If the show wasnt just one big cut scene trying to mock popular culture and celebrities every 18.4 seconds, I'd probably enjoy it more. But that's all it is: one giant cutscene mocking popular culture in an unfunny and non-clever way. That episode of South Park about the cartoon wars hit the nail on the head when it comes to how the cutscenes are thought up for Family Guy.

Are the shows similar? I guess if you stretch it. Both have the obnoxious dad, the sensible wife, the three kids and a dog, and are two comedy cartoons. But I think that's it to be honest. The Simpsons is a much different style than that of Family Guy. The Simpsons usually follows some sort of plot the entire episode, whereas Family Guy has a loose plot outlined with an over abundance of cut scenes.

The shows target the same people I'd say. Teens, young adults maybe. Family Guy targets the people who don't like plots maybe. I dont know, though. Im a Simpsons fan rather than a Family Guy fan.

Edited October 30, 2008 by Vitamin E

[Zaz]

When I was younger I found Family Guy pretty funny. But now that I've... matured (for want of a better word ) a bit, it seems too boorish and simply not as funny. Although some of their movie and show take-offs can still be pretty entertaining, it's just lost that edge to me. Plus, that South Park episode about Family Guy didn't help much, as I every time I watch Family Guy now I think of that >_>

The Simpsons, on the other hand, still gets laughs out of me (old episodes mainly) on the umpteenth rewatching as there'd be jokes I didn't get as a kid. That's one of the best things about The Simpsons - their gags (old episodes again) usually work on many levels, so they'd be funny to you as a kid and when you watch the episode again say five years later, the joke would be even funnier as you either see it in a different way or fully comprehend the joke they're making.

So IMO, Family Guy probably has a smaller target audience and it's designed to get you with the absurdity of it the first time around, whilst The Simpsons can be more subtle and entertain many different audiences.

[Sousa]

Simply put, the Simpsons has been going on for nearly 20 years and can still put out a very funny episode every few weeks. About once a season, they have one that harkens back to the glory days of seasons 3 through about 8, when the show had most of my favorite moments.

Family Guy has been going on for about seven seasons. And this entire season--and much of last season--has been a huge mound of suck.